Saturday Christian Fiction Carnival!

 This is a new event, hosted weekly, by Amy at “My Friend Amy’s Blog“.

The rules are simple:

Each week Amy will post a question or a “prompt”. You take that question and answer it on your blog. Then, go back to My Friend Amy’s Blog and leave your link in the Mr. Linky there. Then visit everyone else’s links and read their answers. So easy!

So, to get things started, the first question asks:

Why do you read and review Christian fiction? Do you exclusively read Christian fiction or do you also read general market books?

I read and review Christian fiction for a couple of reasons. The first is that I’ve always read Christian fiction, and I enjoy most of it (I say “most”, because I just don’t like ‘preachy’ books). The second reason is that Christian fiction is “cleaner” than secular fiction — you’re almost guaranteed not to find any coarse language, violence, or other “stuff” in Christian fiction.

But, I don’t just read Christian fiction, either. I read a great variety of genres (to see a listing of which ones, click HERE to read a previous post about this!).

I also don’t just solely review Christian fiction, either. I also review for places like HarperCollins Canada’s “First Look” program, and LibraryThing.com’s “Early Reviewers” program. I do so because I enjoy stepping out of my reading ‘comfort zone’ every now and then, AND because there are quite often some really good titles offered up that look very interesting — and have been!

Recently I joined a blog-touring alliance called F.I.R.S.T. (Fiction In Rather Short Takes). It’s for readers of Christian fiction (and nonfiction) who like to read, review, and do blog tours for Christian books. I’m loving it, so far!

And, I used to review books for the Christian publisher Bethany House. Through them I found –and became a huge fan of– Robin Parrish.

Edited to add: I agree with the other SCCF participants who say that they read and review Christian books because they are edified by reading books that they can relate to, spiritually… and to help thank the authors for their hard work and ministries. I would count these as my reasons, too.

So, what about YOU? Do you read & review Christian fiction? Head on over to My Friend Amy’s Blog and share your answer!

((just a side note: that “button” at the top of this post is one I created, so I’m sure Amy will have a better one. This post just seemed to need some color, so I created a button to go with it! LOL))

PS… If you want to talk with others about CHRISTIAN FICTION, please help me save the Yahoo! group, “HeartMatters“… click HERE to read more!